Abortion: Not In The Bag

Jillian Bandes | July 16, 2009 10:43 AM

Sen. Lindsay Graham turned the heat up with his line of questions on abortion, the death penalty, and the "wise Latina" comment. It reiterated a lot of what has been asked before, but Graham is probably the last Senator to offer up such heated back-and-forth before the close of the hearings.

I'd like to point out that despite GOP Senators' concerns, Democrats are not at all confident in Sotomayor's stance on abortion. Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights told Salon's Broadsheet: "We're still engaged in the confirmation two-step, there is a game being played about how we talk about Roe vs. Wade and its progeny." The general takeaway, writes Broadsheet's Tracy Clark-Flory, is that Sotomayor's "lips are sealed." The Washington Post and New York Times led with stories on what she really think on abortion, and I tend to agree with Clark-Flory in that her evasiveness indicates that Sotomayor is committed to following in the footsteps of those who came before her.

You could say that she's simply playing the game, or doing the "confirmation two-step," as Northup put it, just as nominees always have. More optimistically, you might say that she's simply dedicated to doing her job.